Topic: Free Agency, Matches 41 quotes.

The Lord Himself has always favored government by the people. You will remember that in the days of Samuel the Prophet the Lord instructed him to let the people have whatever form of government they desired. They clamored for a dictator, a king, and because the Lord respected the right of free-will and human choice, because He recognized the right of men to govern themselves, and that it is better that humanity be self-governed, even though they are poorly governed, than to be compelled to obey even the divine law, He told the Prophet to let the people have a king, a dictator, since they insisted upon it. And the Bible tells us that after the decision of the Israelites to have a king, their dictatorial rulers wasted the substance of the people, they took away their personality and their freedom, and oppressed them with heavy taxes and other burdens. Instead of making a government for the people, as in a democracy, the people became the subjects of the dictators who did not rule for the good of the many but to bring power, wealth and idleness to a few.

Source: Elder Richard R. Lyman
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Free Agency; Kings

Two Antagonistic Forces At War

These great present-day battles, to which I have referred, the greatest of all time, are contests between two forces which are utterly antagonistic. One of these is impelled by the despotic passion to rule mankind and rob human beings of their free agency, and the other has for its cherished ideal the right and ability of man to rule himself. The one contemplates government dominated by dictators; the other is the plan of the Almighty who created men free and equal and endowed them with the right and the intelligence to be their own sovereigns. The Creator never intended that a tyrant should assume the role of dictator and lord it over the sons and daughters of God under the despotic motto: “Might makes right.”

Source: Elder Richard R. Lyman
General Conference, October 1940

Topics: Free Agency; Tyranny

To every man, says Joseph Smith, is given an inherent power to do right or to do wrong. In this he has his free agency. He may choose the right and obtain salvation, or he may choose evil and merit abomination.

A man may act as his conscience dictates so long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others. That is the spirit of true democracy, and all government by the Priesthood should be actuated by that same high motive.

Source: President David O. McKay
General Conference, October 1938

Topics: Free Agency

The fostering of full economic freedom lies at the base of our liberties. Only in perpetuating economic freedom can our social, political, and religious liberties be preserved.

Source: David O McKay
Church News, 12 Mar. 1952, p. 2

Topics: Economics; Free Agency

These two things [The Free Agency of Man and The Knowledge of Good and Evil] are God-given attributes. We inherited them from our divine parents. They are not the gift of any government—they are our inalienable rights with which we have been endowed by our Creator and we may not rightfully be deprived of them by any human power.

Source: Elder Rulon S. Wells
General Conference, April 1935

Topics: Free Agency

Discrimination

Many of the leading problems of our day, I believe, stem from a thought-disease about discrimination. It is well known that discrimination has come to be widely scorned. And politicians have teamed up with those who scorn it, to pass laws against it—as though morals can be manufactured by the pen of a legislator and the gun of a policeman . . . .

If a man is to continue his self-improvement, he must be free to exercise the powers of choice with which he has been endowed. When discrimination is not allowed according to one’s wisdom and conscience, both discrimination and conscience will atrophy in the same manner as an unused muscle. Since man was given these faculties, it necessarily follows that he should use them and be personally responsible for the consequences of his choices. He must be free to either enjoy or endure the consequences of each decision, because the lesson it teaches is the sole purpose of experience—the best of all teachers.

Source: F. A. Harper
As quoted in The Freeman, March 1991, p.85

Topics: Free Agency

The Only Route to Personal Security

If the less productive members of a society truly seek security, let them rally to the defense of the freedom of choice and freedom of action of those who work for a living and who are personally productive. Let them voluntarily deal with one another in a marketplace kept free of compulsion. Such voluntary trading directs the instruments of production and the means of economic security into the hands of those most capable of serving all mankind. It promotes mutual respect for life and property. It stimulates every individual to develop his own talents to their maximum productivity. It encourages saving instead of squandering. The free market, and not its displacement by governmental controls, is the only route to the kind of personal security which makes for harmonious social relationships.

Source: Paul L. Poirot

Topics: Free Agency; Free Market

[A]ny system which deprives men of their free agency, which weakens the home and family, which depends on butchery for power, which denies all moral responsibility, which holds that man lives by bread alone, and which denies the existence of God, is of the devil.

This is the communist philosophy. There is no real evidence that it has been changed in the last forty years.

Knowledge of the enemy and knowledge of ourselves give us the strength to fight the good fight for freedom and world peace.

May it never come to pass that “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,” (Hosea 4:6).

Source: Elder Ezra Taft Benson
General Conference, April 1960

Topics: Free Agency; Freedom, Loss of

But there are developing tendencies, sponsored by selfishness, greed, and ambition that, if unchecked, will soon or late bring sorrow and ruin to our country. Among these tendencies is that of “something for nothing,” at least “more and more for less and less”—more pay for less work. And as I see it, in whatever words these tendencies are expressed, they all lead to some type of national socialism. And generally, socialism is an enemy of free enterprise in the development of which, I repeat, this country has become the greatest on earth. Then why does any honest, patriotic, intelligent citizen of America prefer socialism to free enterprise? Is it not in free enterprise that free agency, a divine gift to every human being, finds an environment favorable to growth and development and to living in harmony with our beautiful doctrine of eternal progression?

Source: Elder Joseph F. Merrill
General Conference, April 1950

Topics: Free Agency; Socialism

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